This post is in response to the comment by Fernando on the previous post. Many of the statements made by Fernando reflect commonly held views but I believe the foundation (e.g. FP vs OO) is too simplistic to be an accurate predictor of what is to come.

I take issue with several of the points that you have raised, Fernando. I'll start with the ones where I can provide objective evidence rather than just opinion.

You say that "F# will be adopted by long-time functional programmers, with LISP/Haskell heritage" but Lisp/Scheme and Haskell programmers account for only 5% of our F#.NET Journal registrants whereas C#/C++/Java programmers account for 53%. The reason is that functional programmers very rarely migrate between functional languages because they are so different (e.g. Lisp vs Haskell is like C++ vs Ruby). People learning any given functional language are always predominantly from mainstream backgrounds. Moreover, the prospect of commercialization makes F# alluring and that is irrelevant for academics happily using Lisp or Haskell. I believe F# will be adopted primarily by startup companies composed of small groups of talented programmers attacking hard problems who realise that the productivity of this language gives them serious advantages over the competition.